Gauging interest in a Courier Business?

[Shami]

I had a thought to maybe start a sort've courier business with one of my characters. A service for those who don't feel like trekking across the whole of Yliakum to sell some ore or an item to someone, charging only a small percentage of the worth of the delivery. Maybe miners would like this service? Any thoughts?

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

Shami, Here is an idea I totally support.

In fact, I am quite surprised a single guild has not been organized that is structured to effectively work as an apprenticeship for crafters, if I am wrong on this great!

It seems to me it would not be incredibly hard to set up levels for a guild (which would soon become fabulously wealthy) such that mining, sale of crafted items, refining, could all be handled on the way to becoming a master crafter with a stable shop (empty places exist for such shops all over Yliakum) open 24 hrs a day, and a solid reputation for creating items of various quality for sale.

I trust that some have though of it and found it hard to do, but if those who began abortive efforts were to band together I am sure that this can be done.

[Prolix]

One problem with a freight hauling business is that your character has to have maximized strength and endurance to carry enough weight and even then it is hard to earn enough to make it worthwhile. It might be possible lugging platinum but the distance is not long enough for the miners to want to share their profit. Almost no-one mines gold anymore unless they are crafting it themselves into shield parts.

As far as items go you might do better starting a mail service except that the book prices are too high. It might work out if you could keep an inventory of rewritable books that you could provide your customers to put their messages into and you made weekly trips. I could see how the role-players might want to take advantage of such a service. Still I think it would be hard to get them to let go of the OOC tells, group or guild chats and embrace such a system.

[Velh Krome]

It might be possible lugging platinum but the distance is not long enough for the miners to want to share their profit

Have the current platinum mine deplete, which wouldnt be surprising considering the current frequentation lol - add a new one around the BD region=P To run such a distance yourself would be a pain.. unless you use second clients..

EDIT:
Oh, and if it wasnt pointed out enough: I like that idea!

[sgtkwol]

A problem to the idea is if the server crashes, which still happens from time to time.  There are times when it happens and I just take off and do something else, because I'm not just going to sit and wait.  My point is, if I am in the middle of a delivery, should I be obligated to wait for it to come back up?  What if it is down for hours?  It's a good idea, but may be better waiting for a more stable service.  There are work arounds, but I wouldn't want to manage it.  I hate to be a downer on a good idea, but these are things that come to mind.

[Velh Krome]

Just hand your ores to a courier, the courier pays for it and.. leaves to do with the ores whatever he wants to do. No need for the courier to pay the miner from the sale of those same ores he bought form him;)

[Jarexia]

I like it!
In fact only a while ago there was a group I met doing pretty much exactly this (with ore). Very handy for a not-so-strong Klyros to have a hulking great (and very polite, I might add!) Kran lug a huge weight of ore for him.

[Zan]

Xillix ..

*cough*Imperial Trades*cough*

 

[Nikodemus]

IMO such service would be boring as hell. Not that mining isn't, but mining you at least make your character better, so you have some additional motivation.
But i think such transport service will start making more sense when carts will be introduced. As with a cart you can transport a lot more than without it. Such a person would simply buy ore at the mine for a lower price than in town, and the difference would be determined by distance to a NPC selling point and how fast would the cart owner mine.
You can't leave cart behind and hope noone take it and you can't run with it. So not everyone would want one and so transporting service make a lot more sense than now.

Of course people do it now and did it a year ago, but they do it so rarely, that it is easy to miss i gues.

[Tuxide]

I remember back when right after the wipe of July 2005 I was able to get some newbs to ferry platinum to Harnquist for me, for a split profit (before metallurgy was implemented).  Of course times have changed, but back then doing this had to be the only unskilled way to gain money.

[Zan]

Ideally in a game, you should be able to let NPCs do the boring tasks for you. Heck I wouldn't even mind if I could hire an NPC to be a miner or even a guard.

[Velh Krome]

That idea I have recently heard of, and I agree, this would be the ideal case. I hope the development will strive for that.

Until then.. courier services could be the "dishwasher job" for newbies or other untrained chars=P

[Nikodemus]

Ideally in a game, you should be able to let NPCs do the boring tasks for you. Heck I wouldn't even mind if I could hire an NPC to be a miner or even a guard.

Or make the boring tasks iteresting tasks instead. Like for mining make prospecting, so people run around the plains with some prospecting tools/magical devices and find bigger and smaller resource areas, which they can claim for their group and mine for 15-1 minutes or so. Mining in mines (which are always far away from cities) you have to pay with mayority of what you pay for the tunels maintanance and guards - in possesion of a guild/group who cand ecide where in the mine they invest the money. So both methods remain interesting and there is enough realism IMO.

Caravans can risk ambushes and other events on their way so it is still interesting to be part of such caravan.

IMO, nothing has to be completly boring, it all depends how it is implemented.

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

Zan,

that is why I left the caveat . . .

But, how zan is imperial trades doing, if they are doing well, why are there still complaints that there is no where to buy newb weapons?

Can we help?

I would love to see more people take the pro-active pro-settings stance that many of your guilds have taken.

[Erisnas]

I believe that this could easily be organised, however, it may take a few trials first.  We would have to see if it was more beneficial to hire per load, per person (follow the same guy around carrying his loads back for profits) or something similar.  Personally, I often hire messengers to carry small items and messages to others.  While I have a large choice of 'assistants' to work with it isn't to hard to find one.  Also, how someone would contact the service would be hard to arrange.  If it is a guild then it will be hard to recruit members other the new players.  More experience players prefer guilds for different purposes, so they wouldn't need to do it for money.  Of course, a stroke of luck may land a courier a routine job such as taking supplies from Hydlaa to Oja, or to deliver newspapers to better selling points.
   In short, a good idea if organized correctly.  If you do plan to go ahead with this idea then please contact me as this service would be of great use to me.